Stumbling and surging

Hello everyone. I may be, "too little, too late" for this thread but my 2010 VFR is doing the same thing that you've all listed. I've talked to 2 different dealers here in Texas about looking at my bike but they didn't give me much hope. One said that the problem sounded "strange" and said that it probably wouldn't be replicated by them. The other said that they'd look at it but they don't get many VFR1200's in their store to compare it to. (Super)
I hate to drop my bike off for an undetermined amount of time since I ride it every chance I get.

The bike hasn't put me in any dangerous situations yet but when it starts to stumble on take off, or when it doesn't go when I want it to, it does make me wonder and second guess it's ability to move me away from danger when the time comes.

(Judging by your comments I suppose I'm up a certain creek without a paddle? :frown

Question: if we have to fix this problem ourselves does a Power Commander handle these issues? If not, can we replace our 2010 ECU with a 2012 ECU?

These are only ideas I have because I love the bike and I want to keep it. I feel that there isn't another bike that can offer the same level of comfort, agility, and speed that the VFR1200 does while giving me the ability to travel 10 hours a day like I have in the past.

 

If you haven't already, call Honda and open a case, and report it to the NHTSA. The only way we will get any support from Honda is if they start seeing sheer numbers of the same problem. Europe had the same issues and Honda gave them updated ECU's, why because the bike was a hot seller there and they didn't want to lose their buyers. If the lemon law/attorney general path doesn't work out I will be filing a civil suit. We should not have to spend even more money on top of what we did to buy the bike to have it run the way it should. Not sure if a PC will fix our problem , but it will void any warranty you have left. It's about time we stand up and get what we paid for. As I told the case worker from Honda; they are a billion dollar company that invest millions into their race teams. Support the people that buy your product! I pay a lot of money a month for my bike and don't make much hourly. I bought this bike because of Honda's reputation for quality and reliability so I could have years of maintenance free riding, I haven't received this as of yet. If we stand together and stay vigilant we can perserver

 

immediately call Randy at Honda. I posted the number above. He is a drone and will just take all your information. You have to make sure that you have your serial number and the date and
place that you have purchased your bike. I don't know your mileage but make sure you have service records that show you have asked the dealer/s to look at the problem.
Unfortunately I also like the bike but I will not tolerate dealer points to Honda and Honda point to dealer. I will have this resolved and will not tolerate not being fixed.

 

So glad i joined this forum, have met some good people and they have really been helpful. If others have had similar issues please share you experiences and make a claim. Seems like more people are having this issue and speaking out.

 

Is this an issue with th 2010 bikes only? Can a swap to the 12 ecu fix it. I have a 12 and have not run across this issue.

if Honda changed ecu is Europe, then that is some strong evidence that something was wrong. What did they change them to? The new 12 ecu?

 

Yes, this is just with the 2010 bikes.

 

In Europe there was a service bulletin to replace the ECU, it didn't specify what year ECU. Keep in mind Honda made a 2011 VFR1200f we just didn't see them in the U.S. because the 2010 was such a failure is sales here. Same reason they are brushing off problems with 2010 bikes in the states, its a numbers game.

 

I'm really hoping that when the snow melts here that my dealer is lucky enough to reproduce the issue. I'm on a tight timeline as my warranty is up the last week of May.

Fingers crossed.

Jim.

 

Hi Jim,
I 'm using the Lemon law here in CT. I want it fixed or a new bike by spring. I still ride it but not without concern something could happen. neither dealer or Honda want to drive it more than 50 miles.
I went almost 500 until it happened again. did someone say you bought your bike in the US?? where are you in Canada?
John

 

Hi Jim,
I think I spoke with you about the problem you were having with your bike, if memory serves me correct this bike was purchased in Hamburg, NY. If not then this would be the second case i've heard of in Canada. John I think that was your complaint now filed with the NHTSA, welcome to the club, we now need the guy in Texas to file his complaint with them. Seems the word is spreading, if more people continue to come forward our case will get stronger. Waiting for the dealership to get copies of two other service receipts when it was in for this problem. As soon as I have those I will complete my NYS lemon law form and file it with the NYS Attorney General, and write my letter of intent to Randy at Honda.

 

Has anyone noticed the surging being temperature related? Now that its cooled down a little here in Texas I can't seem to replicate the stumbling of earlier this year when the temp was 90+. My bike has almost 20K miles on it with an aftermarket Two Brothers exhaust. No other engine mods.

 

Not at all, I've ridden mine from 32 degrees F to 95 degrees F and it will still do it. Sometimes it will do it one mile into my ride sometimes it won't do it for days. The only pattern I see is it happens arond 3500 rpms. GanuserC15 not sure if you reported to the NHTSA yet or not, but if you haven't it would be good for our case for them to see multiple complaints. Only change I have is Akrapovic exhaust that retains exhaust cable and flapper, but it had the same problem with the factory can also.

 

Same here, does not seem to make a difference to me what the temperature is or the length of time into the ride.

 

I agree, temperature doesn't seem to have an affect, or length of ride. Truly intermittent, and no codes logged for the dealer to troubleshoot. They are the worst kind of problems to solve.

 

I live in Canada (north of Toronto), and the bike was purchased in Canada, so you must have me confused with someone else.

 

I did have you confused with another ("alexdig" in St Catherines) see page two of this thread, so it appears there are two cases in Canada. He says he didn't have anymore problems after dealer fixed it. I asked Honda rep to contact them but don't think he did. It's possible his problem went into hiding. Have you contacted Honda yet? what was their response? Believe his bike was purchased in Hamburg NY. You should get in touch with him, and stay in touch with us.

 

Actually I have talked with alexdig about his issue, along with mine a few weeks back. From talking with him I understand the problem has not come back in roughly 700kms since the bike was in for service. I've yet to contact Honda as I wasn't able to get my bike into the dealer before the snow fell here.

The plan is to get my bike to the dealer first thing in the spring and cross my fingers they can reproduce the problem.

 

Definitely call Honda and open a case with them as soon as you can. Even if you can't the bike there till spring it will be documented and another case of the same issue will be in their system. I hope Alex's bike is fixed, but with this problem only miles will tell.

 

I've tried since Saturday to get mine to give me some kind of hiccup but it has yet to replicate its earlier behavior. I've had this bike almost a year and have put 12k of its 20k miles on it.

Does anyone else have this many miles on their bikes and are still having the issues?

Also, how do you guys start your rides on the bike?
(The reason I ask is because of the following: when I called my dealer to complain around July that the bike almost put me into a ditch upon just starting it up and taking off, he explained that the bike needs about 30-60 seconds to run through all if its checks and tests. If I just hop on and ride, the bike is still trying to do its tests and also send fuel to the engine which changes its test results and this may be the cause of the stuttering and surging.)

I thought this man must be crazy, but he may have had something. Since the service guy told me that in July, I have had less and less incidences with the problem. I honestly can't say that I've had the issue arise in several months. I'm not saying its fueling is perfect but I haven't had any dangerous situations.

The way I start my bike is to turn on the key and turn the ignition switch on. I wait till the engine light turns off then I start my bike up. I let it idle while I put on my helmet and gloves. Then off I go. I start slow with a few formula 1 style swerves to warm up the tires then drive conservatively for a few miles to allow the temp to rise in the engine and tires. Then I drive my normal pace after that, which is aggressively.

I tried all last night to get my bike to stutter to no avail. However, I didn't try just starting the bike and going immediately. Perhaps I'll try tonight...

 

Haha.... service advice fail... I always let my bike warm up till the first bar on the temperature gauge lit up, more than a couple minutes and way more than enough time for the computer to regulate and stabilize. Dealership asked me the same question after the Honda rep said he reset my ECU, I told him and he said with fuel injected bikes you can start and go with no warm up time...and we're the ones who don't know what were talking about? My bike does it regardless of warm up time. I've tried and tried to get my bike to re-produce the problem to no avail, my bike decides when it wants to pitch a fit. I was almost re ended as I pulled into traffic and it stumbled as cars flew up my ass! Honda better step up and realize this is an accident waiting to happen.